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Friday, 29 April 2016

Media and politicians denied access to the Great Barrier Reef

I have received comments from an acquaintance in Queensland that I hope I'll be able to share that confirms that no one in Queensland cares. There is a lot of denial, the reef is far off shore and expensive to get to. The political elite is more interested in mining and dredging and 'greenism' has a bad name among the redneck population.

This will be doing ontold damage to the economy, to tourism and to the Australian identity. No wonder they don't want media or pesky politicians poking their noses in.Meanwhile, I hope you have seen Sir David Attenborough's programmes because the ones I posted have already been blocked ("on copyright grounds"). There is now nothing other than reviews available on the internet.

North
Queensland tourism operators are routinely refusing to take media and
politicians to see coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef for fear
the attention will trigger a collapse in visitor numbers, it has been
claimed.

Several
major operators with the backing of industry heavyweights refused to
ferry Greens senators Richard di Natale and Larissa Waters to reefs
off Cairns, the backdrop for their election campaign announcement on
reef policy on Thursday.

They
were just the latest in a string of operators denying media requests
to help them obtain pictures and footage and report on what
scientists say is the worst bleaching event in the reef’s history,
according to dive operator, Tony Fontes.

“I’ve
had lots of people call me asking for contacts and I know obviously
lots of dive operators up [in Cairns] and I’ve contacted them
saying, ‘Would you be willing to talk to the media about this?’”
the Whitsunday-based Fontes said.

“Nine
out of ten refuse, politely, to talk to the media.

“I’ve
heard first-hand [of] operators refusing to talk about it [and] going
so far as to not allow press or Greens’ senators or anybody that
might speak about the bleaching event, [go] beyond the small circle
of Cairns.

“It
seems to be quite prevalent, even amongst fellas that I know are
truly green at heart and run eco-tourism operations where they put
the reef first and foremost – they won’t talk with media, won’t
take media out on their boat,” said Fontes.

Daniel
McCarthy, a charter boat provider and president of the Cairns
professional game fishing association, told News Limited that he and
other operators objected to the Greens’ “publicity stunt”.

“They
told me they wanted to see badly bleached areas, which obviously
suggests they want a doom and gloom story,” he said.

“It’s
quite obvious to me they want a very negative story to ramp up their
argument about coal mining and are quite willing to sacrifice the
reputation and thousands of jobs that rely on the health of the Great
Barrier Reef to push another agenda.”

This
year’s bleaching event – which hit 93% of north Queensland’s
coral reefs, according to a survey by scientists from the National
Coral Bleaching Taskforce – drew global media coverage from the BBC
to the New York Times.

Di
Natale, Waters and their entourage eventually found a berth with
Marine Encounters owner John Rumney, who Fontes described as one of
the few Cairns operators willing to publicly speak out on what coral
bleaching means to the industry.

“I’m
in the camp that says that we’ve got this great bleaching event and
if we’re serious about the reef and the future, people need to know
about it,” Fontes said.

“So
I’m not at all afraid to talk [about] coral bleaching and I’m
really disappointed in the major operators and even minor operators
putting their head in the sand and refusing to, not so much
acknowledge the bleaching is serious, but thinking if the world knows
it’s bleached they’re not going to come here, so let’s try and
hide it.